Mark Your Calendar for October 20!

Man, being gone for a day really messes with my sense of time. For most of the day, I thought it was Wednesday, so I was so surprised when the Tuesday/Thursday 3 year-olds showed up. I'm thankful that all of my trainings are over until November!

Missy said yesterday went really well! It's always fun to hear the kids talk about what they did with Mrs. Joynt (or Keely's mom or Missy or whatever they choose to refer to her as).

Today, we had art projects and investigations all over the place. During interest areas, we worked on making some murals. I suggested to the kids that they paint pictures of some of the things they have learned about balls. We brainstormed some ideas, and they got to work. Of course, as par for the course with preschoolers, they eventually turned to just enjoying the painting experience! Either way, it was a blast for them.

We investigated which balls bounce the highest today. We used an animal measuring stick (yard stick with animal pictures taped every few inches) to measure how high the balls bounced and then charted our findings on some big paper. Turns out basketballs, golf balls, and bouncy balls tend to bounce the highest. Pom-poms and stuffed balls are the lowest bouncers.

Pastor Jordon came and read to us again today. The kids had a great time listening to him read and simply enjoying having another adult in the room!

Tomorrow, we're cooking with Jodie again! I'm excited to see what she has in store for us, and I'm sure the kids will enjoy it.

Now, on to the October event I have been referring to the last couple of posts. On October 20, we are going to be having a Read-a-thon at SON Shine! We're going to run it as a fundraiser for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. The kids will collect pledges from whoever they choose on a per book basis. That night, we'll start out with a family supper and then move into the reading portion of the night. You'll be invited to come as a family and learn some tips about how you can read together. There will be guest readers, family reading, and  fun activities. At the end of the night, we'll tally up the number of books your child reads and see how much money we can raise for St. Jude's!

The event will start with the family supper at 5:00 and we'll start the Read-a-thon at 5:30. We'll be reading until 7:30. I know that is a big chunk of time for many of your super busy families, so please feel free to come and go as you please.

I'm so excited to be able, first of all, to teach you some strategies you can use at home to help enhance your child's reading abilities and, secondly, to help support an awesome cause!

I hope to send home a flyer and pledge form with each child by the end of next week, so you can start collecting those pledges. Please let me know if you have any questions at all!